Alien in My Pocket #7

by Nate Ball

  Olivia’s grandfather didn’t say much or ask questions as he patched me up, but Olivia had told me he wasn’t a big talker.

  “You’ll live,” he said, and patted me on my knee. Then he shuffled through the door without another word, leaving us alone in the garage.

  That dusty couch was where Olivia and I had often hung out with Amp, away from the eyes of the rest of the world. I looked over at the stool Amp had usually stood on, the round seat like a little stage he used to pace around on when he’d lecture us about science and space travel and why he liked Ritz Crackers.

  Knowing he’d never stand there again made the silence that now filled the garage seem almost tragic.

  I shifted, trying to get comfortable. “Well, here we are. The quiet before the storm.”

  “I don’t think Amp saw his planet—or his sun or whatever—blow up,” Olivia said.

  “He’s wrong about almost everything,” I said with sigh. “But what makes you say that?”

  Olivia held up a flashlight. “Watch this. When I turn this on, tell me if you can see the light shoot across the garage and hit the far wall.”

  She clicked it on. A beam of light lit up the dark and gloomy garage as a spotlight appeared on the opposite wall. She clicked it on and off a few more times, each time the light instantly appearing.

  “Are we going to play shadow puppets before the end of the world?” I complained.

  “No! But I’m proving a point.”

  “Yes, your batteries work. Point taken.”

  “Not that, you dimwit. I’m talking about the speed of light.”

  “Oh my gosh, Olivia, if this is a science lesson, my head may just melt right here and now.”

  “Don’t be a baby. I’m talking about how long it takes light to travel from another sun to Earth.”

  “And why do I care? I can see that light is pretty much instant. So what? Amp is gone, and the world is about to end. Can’t see why I should care.”

  She growled at me. “Don’t you get it? I was talking to Grandpa about this. I looked it up on Google. Light travels at the same speed everywhere, about one hundred and eighty-six thousand miles per second.”

  “Per second? I think you mean per hour.”

  “No, I mean one hundred and eighty-six thousand miles per second. At that speed you could go around the Earth seven times in one second.”

  “I would puke for sure,” I said, not getting why this was important.

  “That is so fast, it’s ridiculous, right?”

  “Sure,” I said. “Get to the point—the world as we know it is about to end.”

  “You’re so dramatic.”

  “Seriously? The end of the world seems like an appropriate time for a little drama.”

  “Just listen. The nearest star to our solar system is called Proxima Centauri.”

  “Will this be on the test?”

  “Shush! Proxima Centauri is the nearest star in the whole universe of stars, okay? It’s actually one of three stars in the Alpha Centauri system.”

  “All of this so doesn’t seem important right now.”

  “Guess how long it would take light from that star to get here, traveling at one hundred and eighty-six thousand miles per second.”

  “Per second? Hmmmm. Maybe a few minutes,” I guessed with a shrug.

  “No, it would take 4.37 light-years.”

  “Light-years?”

  “Yes, a light-year is the distance light can travel in one year.”

  “That sounds far. But how far is that in miles?”

  Olivia looked up and thought. “I didn’t figure it out exactly . . . but it’s about twenty-five trillion miles away from here.”

  I stared at her for a moment. “Just thinking about that hurts my face.”

  “All of this means that the light flash or whatever Amp saw happened years ago. It didn’t happen just now. It would take forever for that light to reach us here on Earth.”

  “So?”

  “Don’t you get it?” Olivia asked. “I think the light he saw might be . . . It might mean the invasion of Earth is about to start.”

  “I know! What do you think I’ve been saying all this time? I don’t need trillions of miles to know that. The attack alarm on his spaceship is going off!”

  “It is? Oh my gosh, Zack, why didn’t you say that in the first place, you bubble brain?”

  “The Erdian invasion is about to begin,” I said, still not believing what I knew to be true.

  “Oh my gosh! We have to tell Amp!” Olivia shrieked, jumping up.

  “Why do you think I fell out of my window and ran down the street like human roadkill?”

  The gravity of the situation seemed to sweep over her face. She slapped her cheeks and kept her hands there. “And your brother is . . .”

  “Yup,” I said.

  We both heard the screen door of Olivia’s house open with a sudden bang. “Olivia, hurry, you two should come see what’s on TV!” Olivia’s grandfather shouted from the front door.

  Olivia and I exchanged a glance.

  “It’s started,” she whispered.

  Live with Taylor McGee

  “Well, Ted,” a female TV reporter said into her microphone, “as you can see from all the commotion behind me, a young second-grader from Reed School named Taylor McGee has announced that he has found an alien. It’s caused a lot of excitement here on the steps of the main library.”

  I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The reporter didn’t seem upset or worried; she seemed to think the whole thing was funny, like a prank or a big joke. She wasn’t getting it. This was the biggest news story in the history of the world.

  A man’s voice asked the reporter a question. “Hold on, Ann, do you mean, like, little green men from Mars?”

  The reporter laughed. “Exactly, Ted—except this alien reportedly is blue.”

  “Did the alien ask to be taken to our leader?”

  “I’m not sure,” the reporter said, laughing. She looked behind her at a confused crowd of reporters, police officers, firefighters, and ordinary curious citizens holding up their camera phones. “It’s pretty tiny for an alien.”

  “How does she know how big an alien is supposed to be?” I croaked.

  “Ann, so what did the alien look like?”

  “It’s hard to describe, Ted. Imagine a squirrel that’s been shaved and painted blue.”

  “A squirrel?” Olivia burst out angrily from behind me.

  “Please, you two, sit down,” Olivia’s grandpa said from the couch. “I can’t see the screen.”

  The reporter looked down at her notepad. “Ted, some of the other reporters here said it also looks like . . . a large blue frog. One told me it looked like moldy bread dough. Another described it as a baby rabbit, or a naked mole rat with a skin condition.”

  “A naked mole rat with a skin condition?” Olivia roared.

  “Moldy blue bread dough?” I snapped. “That’s idiotic!”

  I was trying to spot my brother in the churning swarm of the crowd behind the reporter. The scene was chaotic. I recognized the front of the library, which was just a few streets down from my house. I could be there in just minutes, but I couldn’t pull myself away from the out-of-control scene taking place before my eyes.

  “The young man seemed convinced that he has an alien in his cage,” the woman said directly into the camera. She shook her head. “And I’ll admit, Ted, the creature was moving, and I honestly can’t say exactly what I saw.”

  That was when I saw a man lift Taylor above the crowd and onto his shoulders. Taylor was still holding the birdcage, his arms wrapped tightly around it. Hands pulled and poked at the cage. For a split second I could see Amp’s tiny body being tossed around inside the cage.

  “There he is!” Olivia shouted, falling to her knees next to me and jabbing her finger at the screen. “I can see Amp!”

  “Who’s Amp?” Olivia’s grandfather asked. “I can’t see anything!”

  When
the man turned, I could see it was Mr. Prentiss. I could tell from the look on his face he was worried for Taylor’s safety—even his own safety! The camera was jostled, and the video cut out for a second. An intense panic seemed to be sweeping over the crowd.

  “No!” I shouted, pressing both of my hands onto the TV screen. I was just six inches from the screen now. “Get out of there, Taylor!” I shouted at the screen.

  “What’s happening?” Olivia’s grandfather asked. “Is that your brother in the middle of that mess?”

  “Go, go, go!” Olivia hollered at the TV screen.

  The crowd seemed to chase Taylor and his cage. Hands pulled at the cage and tugged on Taylor’s shirt. Mr. Prentiss pushed through the crowd. I could see Taylor was crying. I could no longer see Amp.

  “You can see, Ted, that things are getting out of hand down here. The police are pushing into the crowd. They are . . . Several people have . . . Authorities are trying to restore order.”

  “It’s turning into a riot,” Olivia whispered.

  I lost Taylor and Mr. Prentiss in the crowd. The cameraman appeared to be running after Taylor and Mr. Prentiss, but he stumbled to the ground. Running bodies passed in front of the camera. An older woman was knocked down.

  I glimpsed Taylor and Mr. Prentiss being pushed into a large black car with tinted windows. The man who opened the door wore sunglasses and looked as large as a barn.

  “They’re getting into that car!” Olivia said, jabbing her finger onto the screen.

  “Where are they taking him?” I asked.

  The car pulled quickly away, being led by four police motorcycles with their red-and-blue lights blinking. Some people even ran after the car as it pulled away from the curb and made its way slowly through the growing crowd out in front of the library.

  “I’m not sure what’s going on, Ted,” the reporter said from somewhere offscreen. “I’ve never been . . . The crowd seemed to panic. It’s like electricity is in the air. I’m not sure what that boy has, but the crowd here—”

  The screen turned black.

  I spun around, and Olivia’s grandfather was holding the remote control. He had turned off the TV. “You two need to tell me what’s going on.”

  “Grandpa, you better sit down,” Olivia whispered in the sudden silence.

  “I am sitting,” he said simply.

  “Oh, right,” Olivia said, then looked uncomfortably at me.

  I swallowed. “We’ve been keeping a secret,” I said while looking at Olivia, then pivoted my head toward Olivia’s grandfather. “That really is an alien in the birdcage.”

  “Nonsense,” he said quietly.

  I nodded. “He’s been living in my room. He’s from the planet Erde. He likes to eat Ritz Crackers, SweeTarts, and sometimes sunflowers seeds. And I’m going to go get his spaceship to prove it to you.”

  Busted

  Things seemed foggy.

  I really should have eaten breakfast.

  It felt like I was underwater. I pushed through the air, which seemed thicker than usual. From Olivia’s backyard, I saw a giant white van screech to a stop out in front of our house. Three men in white jumpsuits rushed out from behind the doors and ran to the back of the van. Written on the side of the van in big black letters were the words HAZARDOUS MATERIAL CONTAINMENT RESPONSE TEAM. A bar of lights on the top of the van blinked a bright yellow. Two police officers on motorcycles pulled up beside the van a moment later.

  Olivia and I ducked down and snuck her grandpa’s ladder around the back and leaned it against my house. If we were going to sneak Amp’s spaceship out of my house, we were going to have to be quick about it.

  I climbed that ladder like a ninja after seven cups of coffee. I went through my window so fast that I spilled across my desk and kicked over my lamp, which proceeded to fall onto the back of my head after I face-planted into the carpet. The metal lampshade then made a loud ting after it bounced off the back of my skull and landed on the ground.

  “Smooth move,” Olivia said from above me, her head still in the window. “I bet if you tried, you could make more noise.”

  I replaced the lamp and rubbed the painful lump now rising on the back of my head. I rushed into the bathroom and pulled yesterday’s dirty clothes out of the hamper. When I came out, Olivia had scrambled over the desk and was in the closet looking for Amp’s spaceship—the Dingle.

  “Zack, come quick,” Olivia said from the closet. “We have a problem.”

  “What now?” I followed her into the closet and saw what she was looking at.

  The wool blanket that covered Amp’s spaceship was in a heap, and the spaceship was gone. I picked up the blanket, as if I half expected the Dingle to drop out. It didn’t. It was gone.

  “It— It— It was right here,” I stammered. “I just saw it before I ran after Amp. This makes no sense.”

  Olivia shook her head. “None of this makes sense.”

  Floater

  “It’s gone!” I cried. “The Dingle is gone.”

  “Now my grandpa will never believe us,” Olivia said.

  “Forget about your grandpa,” I said, still clutching the wool blanket. “Now Amp will never be able to get back home!” Loud voices echoed from downstairs. Another blaring siren came roaring up my street.

  I shook the blanket one last time then dropped it. “They’re going to put me in jail for secretly keeping an alien in my house. I can’t go to jail. I haven’t even finished fourth grade!”

  I stared at the dark corner of my closet, where the Dingle had rested peacefully for the last few months. This was all my fault. I tried to hold it back, but I couldn’t. I started to cry. Hot tears came rolling down my cheeks like water over the rim of a clogged toilet.

  Olivia patted my shoulder from behind, but I didn’t turn around.

  “Thanks,” I said with a tight croaky voice. “You’re a good friend.”

  “No, you ninny, look,” she said.

  I peeked over my shoulder to see that she was pointing up. I followed her eyes to the ceiling of my closet, and there floated Amp’s spaceship, silently bobbing in the corner.

  “How is it flying?” I said with a sniff.

  “No idea,” Olivia whispered.

  We stared at it in silence. It had gotten tangled up in some string. It looked like a golden balloon pulling on a leash.

  I wiped the tears from my cheeks with the back of my hand. Olivia jumped up, but she couldn’t untangle the string.

  “Anybody up there?” a strange man’s voice called from the bottom of the stairs. “My name is Agent Musson, and I have a warrant to search this house.”

  Olivia and I made bug eyes at each other. Neither of us made a peep. I heard him open the door to Taylor’s room. He must have stepped on some part of one of Taylor’s unfinished experiments, because he gave a yelp when it made a strange noise. Without speaking, I quickly tiptoed out of the closet, grabbed my desk chair, and carried it into the closet. I put my hand on Olivia’s head for balance, climbed on top of the chair, and with a yank I pulled the spaceship free from the drooping string.

  “Eww . . . his ship is warm,” I whispered when I got the spaceship under my arm.

  “Hurry, I hear more footsteps,” Olivia hissed.

  At that moment we shut the closet door just as my bedroom door swung open. I was still on the chair, the palm of my hand still pressed on the top of Olivia’s head. We both stood as still as we could, trying not to breath.

  “Is anyone in here?” the man asked. “This is the FBI, and this area is under investigation.”

  Olivia and I stared at each other, straining not to move or make a noise. I held my breath. I could hear footsteps walk into my room, pause for a few seconds, then exit. The floor creaked out in the hall, which meant the agent was heading back to Taylor’s room.

  “Older brother’s room is a mess, but it looks clear!” the man’s voice boomed, apparently to someone downstairs.

  Olivia tapped my arm and pointed to the sid
e of the Dingle. Next to the flashing purple invasion warning light I had seen earlier was what appeared to be the shape of an Erdian, like Amp’s perfect silhouette, also flashing in purple.

  I shrugged. I stepped down from the chair and listened for the agent. Olivia poked her head out of the closet. “The coast is clear,” she whispered. “For now.”

  “Look,” I said. After untangling the spaceship from the string, I’d noticed it weighed nothing.

  It was like holding a party balloon filled with warm helium. Normally, Amp’s spaceship was pretty heavy. I pulled my palms away from the sides of the ship, and it floated in the air for a second, and then, like a tiny blimp, headed for the open window. I stepped forward and grabbed it again. It floated patiently in my hands, but I could tell it wanted to float away.

  “I’ve got it!” I whispered. “It’s like a homing device. It’s trying to go to Amp. To rescue him or something. Like in those old Westerns, the cowboy movies, when the good guy’s horse returns to help him escape and catch him in the saddle when he jumps out of a second-story window.”

  Olivia blinked at Zack. “I don’t watch those kinds of movies.”

  I could hear the agents moving around in Taylor’s room, switching his many homemade robots on and off. “Lots of tech in here. We should also toss the older brother’s room—just to be on the safe side.”

  As quickly and quietly as she could, Olivia crawled across my desk and out the window, her eyes on the open door the whole time. “C’mon,” she whispered.

  I grabbed my scissors out of the jar on my desk and ran back into the closet and snipped off a length of the string. I tied it quickly around the spaceship’s middle.

  I followed Olivia out the window. “Check it out—I’ve got a balloon,” I told her as we backed down the ladder.

  “Quit messing around,” she growled. “I think they’re coming into the backyard.”

  The spaceship pulled at the string, but it wasn’t too hard to hold on to as I climbed out over my desk and onto the ladder. The Dingle strained against the string and floated behind me.